I thought it’d be right courteous of me to give you all a bit of insight into my history as a gamer and why you should bother to come back and read what I have to say. That’s why I have initiated a short, introductory blog series that will give you a bit of insight into my history as a gamer, beginning at my experience with the NES and chronicling my adventures now. It’s called A History of Violent Pixels, and this is the first part.

Unlike those who feel pressured into indicating to everyone online that they did indeed begin their adventures in gaming via the Atari 2600 because that is the most widely accepted and almost inevitable response, I was introduced to gaming via the NES. Nothing wrong with that.

Many days were spent in front of the television as my father kept me company. I regularly puzzled out Snake, Rattle, n’ Roll, and my mother would hover around me as I did so – just to see what this video game thing was, never to join in. The inevitable Mario marathons took place late in the night when my younger self should have been in bed, though Dad knew and understood that I simply couldn’t sleep until we topped the draw record in Hogan’s Alley. I also was quite fond of Shooting Range, though the red-and-white umbrella-like targets proved difficult for my young eyes to track. Near the end of the NES’s lifespan in my household we enjoyed Zelda, Metal Gear, and various other titles. One fateful day, my parents boxed up my favorite piece of technology and cruelly sold it off to a buyer at a yard sale. They even carted off the Zapper, something I still miss even these days. I’m hoping to buy another one whenever I can afford to rebuild my NES collection.

After mourning the loss of my NES, I endured a long period of time spent having to borrow friends’ SNES games and systems in order to get my kicks. I never truly had a SNES of my own, sad to say, until a few years ago when I began my own personal collection. With that said, though, I enjoyed many of the classics such as Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario RPG, plus various Final Fantasies that I found to be phenomenal and absolutely worth all the time I poured into them. I also quite enjoyed Terra Nigma. At such a young age I was already hooked. Unfortunately, I would often blame my parents for forcing me to forgo the SNES, because even though my father facilitated and fed my addicition, they were of the mindset that I should be content to play with my dolls and various other boring conventions. This caused ongoing, heated arguments and tantrums. Luckily, they gave in and purchased a Genesis for me from the pawn shop.

The days of the Genesis were some of my glory days. I was endlessly flustered with Buster’s Hidden Treasure, as I could not wrap my tiny brain around the later levels featuring lava and precise jumps. I did find my forte in Tempo (Check it out, ya know. He makes it funky, and he’s good to go.) and Sonic, as well as Sonic Spinball, which I’m terribly excited about now that I can play it via the 360. Sweeeeet. Dad and I had some friendly shots at each other with Mortal Kombat, and my mother would often complain that my young brain shouldn’t be exposed to SUCH VIOLENCE!!!1!one!eleven! Luckily my dad wasn’t worried about such asinine remarks, and our sprees continued. Sometimes with Alex Kidd, sometimes with Altered Beast, and quite often with Captain America and the Avengers. Since we weren’t exactly rolling in the dough, many of our games would come from pawn shops or yard sales, I would always get the most random of assortments. Even though my mother didn’t exactly enjoy the time Dad and I would be spending together or separately gaming, she knew that’s just the kind of person he was then, and thus accepted him and my almost inbred love of games as well. It’s no surprise then that after the reign of the Genesis in my household and in my bedroom, an explosion of technology was about to occur.

What was this explosion, exactly? Was it messy? Do you even care? Find out next time, on the next exciting episode of Dragon Ball Z, er, A History of Violent Pixels. Thanks for reading.